Sydney Ideas

Location:

Co-presented with the School of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Science for the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI) Summer School

Cancer and neurological diseases are among the top 5 causes of death in Australia. There is some good news in this battle against disease, however, as new big data technologies now allow scientists to measure nearly every aspect of a cancerous tumor and take real-time scans of the active human brain.

This big data may hold the key to understanding causes and possible cures for cancer as well as understanding the complexities of the human brain.

Join us on a voyage of discovery as we highlight how data science is transforming medical research. Specifically, we show how networks can be used to visualize and mine big biomedical data, from genetic networks that have led to the discovery of new drug targets for cancer to brain networks that show how the brain communicates and how these communications are disrupted in neurological diseases. Using real case studies we will demonstrate how cutting-edge data science is bringing us closer than ever before to major medical breakthroughs.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr Genevera Allen holds joint appointments at Rice University and the Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children's Hospital. Her research focuses on developing statistical methods to help medical scientists make sense of their big data. In 2014, Dr Allen was named to the 2014 ‘Forbes '30 under 30': Science and Healthcare’ list. More information.